CS City Council to Approve $4.5 Million Electrical Substation Contract

With all the growth that's coming to Northgate and the Research Valley Biocorridor, College Station city planners say a new electrical substation is necessary to keep up with the growing demand for power in the area.

"I mean if you go up and look...by the end of 2014, there will be enough apartments up in the Northgate area that's equivalent of adding a small city to that area," said Timothy Crabb, Director of Electric Utility for College Station Utilities.

However, the construction you can already see in the area is just the beginning.

"Right now, with stuff we've permitted that's coming out of the ground, we're looking at around 1,700 bedrooms, which we'd equate to people," said Lance Simms, Assistant Director of Planning & Develoment with the city. "Then on the horizon, we've got another 2,000 potentially, so we're looking at between 3,000-4,000 people in the next few years that would be added to Northgate."

And that's on top of all the buildings that will be built in the Research Valley Biocorridor.

That's why the city of College Station is expected to approve a contract to build a new substation for an estimated $4,690,855.

City planners say the new substation will go next to the Texas A&M substation on Agronamy Road. It should be done by December, and it will service all the new developments going up in Northgate and the Biocorridor.

The new substation will also be a source of back up power, in case of outages.

College Station utility officials say the project will be funded through debt, then paid off through customers' bills.

"There wont be any increase in rates for this. We're going to be adding a lot of customers and that will help pay for these facilities," said Crabb.

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